World Poker Tour

A minimalist's card game.

Functional and fun. That's the best way to describe 2K Games' World Poker Tour for the Game Boy Advance. It doesn't feature a whole lot, but it works and it's enjoyable.

For roughly 20 dollars American, purchasers of WPT on GBA will get a Limit Texas Hold 'Em, No Limit Texas Hold 'Em, Omaha and Pineapple poker game with a satisfying career mode, a few reasonable extras, and a halfhearted multiplayer component.

The multiplayer game is the weakest part of WPT, for it only allows a hotseat match to be setup between any combination of up to six human or computer opponents -- computer AI levels can be set on a per player basis, but you can only choose a specific persona if you've unlocked that character through career play. After configuring a six-person table, WPT lets players choose from one of the four available game types and then determine what the starting cash and blinds will be, as well as what the felt will look like.

As far as multiplayer is concerned, WPT could have benefited greatly from dealer's choice games, more configurations, more augmentable players, and a linked multiplayer mode with other GBAs. While the hotseat play is nice (given that it won't show a user's cards until that user flips 'em up with the A button), it's not going to win any awards for completeness.

The singleplayer game, thankfully, is much more satisfying. In addition to a healthy collection of non-interactive tutorials, the battery-saved career mode features a wealth of quick draw, satellite, casino and multi-table tournament games based on real locations. The escalating difficulty and steady stream of extraneous bonuses players can unlock by completing this career mode makes moving through the ranks rewarding, but there are still some issues with the actual meat of the game.

The AI in WPT, as is the case with a great deal of poker games, seems designed to encourage action. Unfortunately, it defines "action" as the number of hands seen. This means that it's generally quite difficult to bluff any or all of the AI opponents off a hand with anything less than two shots at the pot and a lot of luck. So while WPT is designed to ensure a constant supply of action by guaranteeing a lot of calls, it's actually diminishing the overall level of enjoyable poker because bluffing is a critical component of the formula that's not being represented... It's just depressing when you bet $500 into a $50 pot and someone puts their tournament on the line by calling your $500 with a King - Five off-suit pre-flop. There's no sense in that. It ruins the action, actually.

Still, given that the expert and advanced levels of AI aren't nearly as prone to blind calling for the sake of excitement, we're reluctant to lambaste this game's play, especially considering how clean the presentation is. And presentation, of course, is a big part of any poker game.

The actual in-game interface is very simple. Pictures of players line the table and the button moves along with them. Numbers are present for the pot size and the current bet, and a small text prompt even indicates what the current play is and who just made it. It's all designed with the same blues and grays and blacks that make WPT look the way it does. The game's low-key visuals also keep it moving along briskly without any absurd animations and slow loads.

Our only gripe with the presentation is that there isn't enough emotion. We don't get any expressions in the static faces of our opponents that offer some idea of what they're betting. Just a few different states for each player would have been awesome (scared, angry, sad, etcetera). WPT is also rather muted and mellow, which makes it often feel like we're playing Solitaire and not a poker product based off a renowned television series.

The Verdict

For the money, WPT is a good card game; it's just not big on the extras. If you want a simple, polished poker title that's easy to play, please buy it and enjoy. But understand that there're still a lot of options and modes developers should be putting into their portable poker products to make them really great.